Qayyarah Airfield West

Qayyarah Airfield West is a military airbase located to the west of the city of Qayyarah in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. Formerly known as Saddam Airbase, Qayyarah Airfield West was built in the 1970s as a "super base" by Iraqi engineers in response to Iraq's defeats in its wars with Israel. During the 1980s, it was the launching pad for Mirage fighter attacks against Iran, and the Sector-Operations Center of the Northern Command of the Iraqi Air Force was based at the airfield until the United States invasion at the start of the Iraq War in 2003, having already been bombed by the US Air Force in the Gulf War. The Americans set up FOB Endurance and converted Saddam Airbase into "Qayyarah Airfield West", and it was active and in-use under the Americans and the new Iraqi government. In 2014, the Islamic State took over the airfield during the Iraqi Civil War, but it was wrested away from the militants on 9 July 2016 during Operation Fatah, the major Iraqi Army offensive against Mosul.